How to lose three hours - go internet shopping

I have managed to lose 3 hours of my life over the last couple of nights due to internet shopping. And it wasnt even internet shopping for me! We were looking for a dress that Naidel's mum can wear to the wedding we're going to in Portugal. There were many pretty dresses, and many pretty shoes also. I found myself a very nice cream silk clutch bag which will look faboo with my lilac silk dress *nods*.
This week has been much busier than last week thus far, which is good because now i feel like i am actually doing something not just wasting my time. The new replacement iPod is working a treat and i now have a smile on my face whilst walking to work in the mornings again :)
Right, back to the grind.

YAY!

I got my iPod back! Yay! (Well, in fact what i got was a new one exactly the same model and colour as my old one)

Now thats what i call service!

Hows this for good service – I filed an online service request with Apple UK for my iPod on Saturday, it got picked up by UPS on Tuesday, it reached Apple UK yesterday morning, they identified the fault yesterday afternoon and the replacement should be with me on Monday! Pretty good service eh? I’m going crazy without my iPod though. I didnt realise how much i use it until i had to send it back to Apple. I actually found it more of a chore to work out in the gym last night without it. Oh well, on monday i shall be re-equipt with my iPod and thus shall be singing along to my music on the bus or treadmill again :)
I am soooooooooooooooo bored at the moment as we have naff all work at the moment. I have been sneakily doing my OU notes when no-one is watching! I need a holiday methinks, and thank goodness its not that long until we go!!! :)

Lemon squeezer wielding assassin

DnD was cancelled last night due to many of our players being elsewhere (i can't believe they'd find something more important to do than playing DnD!), so thus i went home and spent the evening studying away. I watched a bit of TV, which was relatively crap, until 'Waking the Dead' came on. Annoyingly, we missed the first ten minutes, so when we turned it on, they had just figured out what the murder weapon was - a lemon squeezer. Seriously, i kid you not. A lemon squeezer. A lemon squeezer much like this one.........How on earth do you kill someone with a lemon squeezer? Am i now to be fearful of anyone with a lemon squeezer for fear they may use it to kill me?!? Weird.
Today has been largely uneventful, as usual, but i did manage to purchase myself a necklace and a bracelet for my hols! Yay! I got myself a really really nice piece of polished Amethyst and bought some black cord and made that in a necklace, which is very nice and very me, and i found a really nice Snowflake Obsidian bracelet in Arcadia. Amethyst is said to promote, healing, calm, dreams and restful sleep, and Snowflake Obsidian is said to promote safe travel, increased energy, sensitivity, understanding and change. I am counting down the days to our backpacking trip now and getting very excited indeed *nods*. I have started to gather stuff together to take with me - i have a new toothbrush, some toiletries (face wipes, deoderants etc), a pair of cargo pants, some socks and two tops. I also have my travelling notebook and swiss army knife. I have yet to find a pen that i want to take travelling tho. I was thinking of getting a Parker pen, but i can't find one i like, and the purple pens that i love go through the paper of my travelling notebook :( Hmph. Oh well, i'm sure i'll find one before i go.

I miss my iPod :(

iPod goes bub-bies

Today a man from UPS arrived at my office (which was odd, because i momentarily felt as if i'd stepped onto the set of an American chick-flick) to take my little pink iPod away to be serviced :( It has been freezing lots and despite doing everything the support website told me to, it carried on doing it, so i realised it was time to send it back to Apple UK. Apparently they are going to be nice enough to send me a new one in about a week, which will be good. Only problem is, now i have to go a week without an iPod!!!! I sold my old one to Naidel's sister :( Oh well, at least i have employed a valuable skill that Naidel taught me - never go anywhere without a book, you never know what might happen. So thus i shall be reading 'Voice of the Gods' by Trudi Canavan. That or writing. I have taken to writing when i'm on the bus for some reason, and i actually come up with some half decent stuff too. The only problem is, when i try to read it back when i get home its often illegible! Oh well, a good system, just a few kinks to be worked out (kinda like computers!) .

Cheated

Well, i feel cheated out of three hours of my life. Last night we went to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I was largely disappointed. For a start, there were 40 minutes worth of adverts! 40 MINUTES!!! I'd eaten all my sweets by the time the film started! And then there was more disappointment as it was very slow starting, and had a very poor ending. Hmph. Transformers comes out on friday, which i am very excited about. Jenkins when to see the advance previews of i this weekend and she says its really really awesome. She just wishes her car would turn into a robot now! :) Naidel has also seen it and says its very good. So yush i am very much looking forward to seeing that one.
Yesterday i walked a total of 7 miles with a heavy bergen, and boy am i feeling it today! Methinks i still have lots of training to do! But i did it, and i am very proud of myself :) I now have a map of Europe on the wall next to my desk and it has little pins in the places we might be going to :)
Today was the grand office move, but i stayed where i am :( I am not allowed to move to my plush new office until we get back from backpacking :( Most of my friends have now been moved to the downstairs office and it is very very quiet up here. But thankfully one of my closest friends in the office - Sammie - is now moving to the desk opposite mine, so i wont be completely alone for very long! It's weird, coming into the office and not being insulted by Glen....this may take some getting used to! :)

The 'Backpacker Steph' doll project is underway... and i know who dies in the new Harry Potter book!!! Mwah ha ha haaaa!!!

Today i finally found a ginger doll with which to start the 'Backpacker Steph' doll project today. Its taken me ages to hunt down a ginger doll!!! I finally found a ginger Bratz: Fashion Pixiez doll, called Lina or something, and thus, have begun to transform her. Observe below how she looked in the box.....Then, when i finally managed to break her out of the box (soooooooooo much packaging!!!) and take off those ridiculous wings and sort her outfit a bit, she looked like this.....But she just wasn't 'Steph' enough yet, so I took a pair of scissors and gave her a 'Me' hairdo, which i think i was quite successful at, if i do say so myself. Observe...

So now, all i have to do is paint her eyes green (at the mo they are a scary purple colour...i have always wanted purple eyes but it actually look quite creepy on the doll), paint my rings and a necklace on her and make her some little backpacker clothes and a bergen. Shes going to look awesome when shes done! I had the above picture as my display picture on Windows Live Messenger, and one of my friends said - "Is it wise to have a voodoo doll that looks exactly like you in the house?!?!". We're now going to start working on the next one - Camping Bex! :) I think i'm going to have to hunt down a Backpacker Naidel too :)

Today was very busy. We went to the TA welfare lunch, where we had a hog roast and then went on a treasure hunt, which me and Kate won!!! We ran frantically around the TA centre grounds to find the clues, adn eventually i worked out the final clue and won us £20! Go us! Then we went to Homebase for four paving stones and came out with a shed load of stuff we didnt need (including a v.pretty purple orchid for mine and Naidel's room - stylish), and then we had to take the car to Naidel's dad's garage so someone could buy it, then fought our way through Tesco's, where i got the bargain of the year - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (which, bear in mind, had been released at midnight ) for a total of £5!!! One of my friends went to ger hers at midnight and paid full price for it, which i believe was something around £17.99!!!! Oh and by the way..... I KNOW WHO DIES!!!! Mwah ha ha haaaaaaaaa! Actually i was quite disappointed, personally i think she could have done better. In fact, i think I could have done better, but thats because i foolishly consider myself a writer :)

Acquisition of more travelling stuff

Mwah ha ha ha, mine is an evil laugh. Due to extreeme rainy conditions again I was forced to dive into the shops and whilst i was there i picked up a pair of gorgeous cargo pants, a pink halter neck top and a pair of Animal flip-flops which are soooooo unbelieveably comfortable. And i got all this for this bargain price of £30! (which is awesome cos the flip flops were full price at £15, and the top and cargo pants amounted to £15 too as they were in the sale in Freespirit. Go me!).
I have very little planned for this weekend. We're heading to a TA families welfare thingy and then doing some grocery shopping tomorrow, and for Sunday i shall probably doing naff all. I am tempted to take Naidel's brother to see Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, as i'm interested to see how the film correlates with the book (as it is pretty much the only Harry Potter book i have read from start to finish other than the first one). Transformers is due out next week, which i am very much looking forward to as it is going to be awesome! I'm going to attempt some more writing this weekend, but i am struggling with it at the mo....I need my muse (but sadly he is still in the sandy place). Bah.
Hmm i still smell like burning.....

Not happy

Today has been spent sorting out the grand move, as everyone is moving offices...everyone, that is, excet moi. :( As i am going away for a month and wont be back until mid october, I am not allowed to move or start my new job until then :( In the meantime, the new guy (who i actually dont like at all and who is a total w**k*r) is going to be sitting at my desk :(. The office is really quiet now as Glen has gone downstairs which means i dont have any friends left in the office (as Sammy is over the other side of the office and i have to shout to speak to her). One good thing is that my new desk is huge! Its bigger than Mark and Glen's desks!!! I just hope that someone else isnt going to have taken over my job when i get back. It worries me a lot actually. I worked my butt off for that promotion, it had better be there waiting for me when i get back! It is a very nice office actually, with lots of light and space and snazzy new carpets. I shall be very much at home there. Theres even a display board where Glen can put all my post cards. Lovely :)

Guen and Ixian present.........

...My awesome new Moleskine notebook. As my Naidel also uses a Moleskine notebook (though his is plain whereas mine is lined), i have made mine distinguishable with my trademark sparkly stars. Observe below, my new Moleskine as presented by Ixian and Guen...Below is the opening page of my notebook, featuring a picture of my alter-ego, Kaiorli Nailo, slaying a green dragon on the left side of the book and a picture of her daughter Xanafe Nailo-Forestwalker on the right side of the book. Also featuring more sparkly stars...

Burney

Well, after my thoroughly boring day, i was not expecting to see large plumes of smoke billowing out of my back garden when i got home. But, lo and behold, there was a fire at the bottom of the garden. Naidel's dad was burning the old shed as they got a new one today. He also burned the bitumen roof, which produced some big scary flames and some large plumes of very black smoke! I was only out there for five minutes and i reek of burning!!! The fire is now dying down and looks a bit like a lump of molten lava. Observe....See. Like molten lava. Methinks its not going to die down as quickly as Naidel's dad thinks....
Do spiders scream when they're burning?

Wasted

Another beautiful summers day wasted as i am stuck in the office. Yet more hours of my precious time wasted as there is no work to do. I'm bored!!! I have already wasted my 'get out of the office' pass today by going to the train station and buying Fab lollies for the peeps on my floor (all the advisers are either training, in hospital or watching the cricket at Lords, so its just us admin bunnies). They are fitting carpets on the first floor (and in my new office yay!!!) so it absolutely reeks of glue in here, and before too long we shall all be off our faces on it. There goes more brain cells (this is not a prompt to make a joke about my intelligence or lack thereof). The only saviour of my sanity right now is that i remembered to pick up my writers notebook and incredibly beautiful new purple pen (it is incredibly beautiful...and purple), so thus i can do some of my ECA writing. I have chosen to write about a Dungeons and Dragons character of mine - Akinra Namara. She's the first Paladin i ever played (well, played properly anyway. The first Paladin i ever played was Lady Athenia, but i only played her once, and now she is too busy running The Province whilst Lord Adgravaine is out on a Holy Crusade). She is also the first female to be admitted to the Order and go through all the tests (as Shalimar was never tested, she just poked Gerald, Tiberius and Alker lots until they caved). She overcame some very nasty odds, lots of discrimation, and achieved her dream by working hard and never giving up. Thus i thought it was be good to submit a short story about her struggle to get into the Order (thank you for the inspiration Naidel, i wouldn't have considered it without your encouragement).
So, to the writing!
...
...
...
er...
...
...
Now i have writers block. *puts head in hands and screams*

It's amazing what people find you to do when they know you're bored

I woke up in a big way after a nice lunch-time shopping trip in town with Layla. I bought some really cute little stud-earrings for my trip - one pair is strawberries, one pair is pink stars and the best pair are little penguins!!! They're soooo cute!!! :) Also got myself a decent pair of sungalsses and a lanyard so i can carry important stuff around my neck if need be. I have yet to find a tribal necklace that i like as very few shops sell them anymore. Rubbish :( My boss has now discovered my bordom and is finding things for me to do. So far, he has got me to construct a credit card form as we are now offering clients the option to pay fees by card. I did that in 10 mintues. So then me and Jenkins had an arm wrestle (that girl is freakishly strong considering she is so skinny!!! She has stick-man arms!!! Seriously!!!), then me and da boss (i.e Glen) played shocking russian roulette, at which he cheated. I know, i know, you're going to say "how can you cheat at russian roulette?". Well, he has tampered with it so it never stops on no.1. So he always makes sure he gets no.1 and never gets shocked! The cheek of it! And now i am whiling away my bordom drawing pointless but colourful pictures on paint. Roll on home time!!!

Bordom and sleepness....ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..........*wakes self up snoring*... I'm awake! I'm up! Where am i? Ah, desk...files...stapler...post-its...calculator..ah ha! Must be work. *Yawn* i am very very sleepy today, i may have to employ some matchsticks to keep my eyes open. I had a very very bad nights sleep last night due to quite horrific nightmares and this morning when i woke up my duvet was on the floor, one pillow was in the washbin (across the room), one pillow was on the window sill (behind the bed) and i had cocooned myself in the sheet. So now i am very sleepy and not very coherent. If i had something to engage my brain it wouldnt be so bad, but i have a total of 8 things on my to-do list, and nearly all of them can be done in about 5 minutes flat (and already have been). Thus, i am bored as well as sleepy. You think anyone would notice if i had a power nap behind the wall of files i have collected on my desk?

Workin' my booty off

This evening i have worked my booty off in the gym training for mine and Naidel's backpacking trip. I spent 45 minutes in the gym sweating like i never have before and now i am completely cream-crackered! I spent a good ten minutes pounding the Nautilus, which means i probably wont be able to walk in the morning! I did some weights, and a good fifteen minutes on the cross trainer, so i fell like i've done some thoughrough training. Tomorrow i am planning to go for a run with my pack before i go to work. So i am finally getting into the swing of this training malarkey! :)

Writing

Have found a fab web page with some great writing ideas via my friend's Lighthouse blog. It is available for your viewing pleasure here. A very good page for all those budding and struggling writers like me and my fellow OU pals :)

Squishy

A humid sticky heat and big heavy rain clouds are never a good combo. My hair is so big it looks like i stuck my hand in an electrical socket! My brain is all squishy this morning having exhausted it this weekend. My boss gave me significant glares this morning when i struggled to work out the projected end-of-month figures (which, as his new PA, i should be able to do off the top of my head). This weekend i have been mostly working on my ECA Assessment Portfolio project, which, since we will be travelling when it is due in, i am having to complete much earlier than planned, and also Life Writing, which i thought would be easy compared to poetry but is in fact complete tosh. Awesome (note the sarcasm). I have a couple of good story concepts which i have been working on, but they need lots of development. My Naidel proved himself as my muse again by giving me some great ideas. See, this is why i need him at home!!! My Naidel met Jude Law last week!!!! Apparently he was in Kabul with the UN or something! Naidel took him out on patrol and was leading the team that was protecting him apparently!!! How cool is that?! He is progressing well with his writing. His writing is very very good and i am starting to get quite jealous.
Bah, that noise is the phone (was starting to think i had tinitus or something...), oh well, back to reality....for a couple of hours at least.

Better than I thought!

Got my poetry TMA result through this morning which means i am finally truly rid of the vile subject! The weird thing is, the result is a lot better than i thought....in fact, its one of my best results so far!!! Maybe i wasn't as bad at it as i first thought! Hmm...suddenly i see a future in collections of poems.....on second thoughts, nah! Far too much stress! I think i'll stick to fiction writing, much more enjoyable!
Managed to sync my palm pilot to my laptop last night but it is being a bitch and wont let me load photos. Also no matter how many times i delete Glen's profile it just wont budge! Dargh! Even tried to do a hard reset and its not moving! Glen is going to try and fix it today, though i'm not sure he'll be much use as he can't even get his new palm to work on his laptop!
Kate and I are going to dinner with some of her clients tonight which will be thrilling (note the sarcasm). We've been putting it off for the last three months but we can't really keep doing it, so we figured it would be better to just go and get it out of the way. Personally i'd rather go home and read a book or sleep.
Oh well, back to world domination.

Going up in the world

I must be going up in the world - my boss gave me a palm pilot today! I guess i'm a real PA now! Its for personal use too, which is cool. And it has games on it! I know what i'll be doing in boring meetings from now on!!! :)

Oh what fun....

Today i have mostly been training. It was so fun i could barely keep awake. I actually caught myself dropping off at one point! I had hoped that i would wake up as the day went on, but i am still struggling to keep awake! What i would give to be able to go home and go to sleep! Sadly i am being dragged to the gym for backpacking fitness training. Went for another run, this one killed me less but still hurt like hell.
Found a good website for backpacking info > > www.the-backpacking-site.com. It has some good tips and some very helpful links. Been checking out Inter-rail passes, apparently because we are under 25 we are classed as youths in Europe and thus pay lots less than Adults! We do, however, have to travel standard class! Planning is going ok, have managed to convince my parents that i will not fall down a mountain and break my legs or get abducted never to be seen again. I will be well looked after by my Naidel, he'd never let anything happen to me :) And i am not as accident prone as everyone makes out....